Developed a Statement of Intent pledging commitment to the Global Farm Platform, which has been signed by Bristol, Leeds, UWA, Wisconsin-Madison, Zhejiang and Rothamsted Research.

WUN Sustainability Fund award valued at £40,000.

Global Farm Platforms for Optimisation of Grazing Livestock Production Systems

Professor Mark Eisler at the WUN Workshop at UNFCC COP21

The major challenges facing humanity in the twenty-first century include climate change, population growth, environmental pollution, loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and lack of food, water and energy. Concerns about the sustainability of livestock and consumption of animal products, particularly for ruminants, led to careful consideration of the manifold contributions of ruminant livestock to global food security and rural livelihoods by an international, multidisciplinary group of scientists working under the Worldwide Universities Network Global Challenge Responding to Climate Change. The group developed a vision for sustainable ruminant production, the critical aspect of which change were published in Nature ‘Steps to Sustainable Livestock’. One essential aspect of the vision was advocacy for an international network of model farms, the Global Farm Platform (http://www.globalfarmplatform.org). To further the aims of the Global Farm Platform, two rounds of WUN RDF funding have been used to develop a co-ordinated network.

This project is a step change in the activities of the GFP that extends it to include several new partners, thus expanding the socio-economic and geographical range of the program. To realise the potential of this extended consortium we must facilitate exchange of ideas and personnel between the new members and the existing Global Farm Platform family, and, importantly, secure additional funding streams for a number of sub-projects relating to sustainable livestock. The WUN Sustainability Grant maintains functionality of the network and enables competitive funding applications. These will include genetic improvement in dairy cattle for the tropics and of rangeland beef cattle, measuring soil organic carbon in pastoral systems, use of deep-rooting perennial forages, and a pan-genome approach to reducing methane emissions by ruminants. Funding bids will recognise and emphasise the role of women in livestock keeping and smallholder farming livelihoods, increasingly recognised as being of global importance.